


flowers bloom until they rot

by lovelyleias



Series: DQ Valentine's Day Treats 2019 [3]
Category: Deltora Quest - Emily Rodda, Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 21:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyleias/pseuds/lovelyleias
Summary: Jarred loses faith, and so loses everything. Hadestown AU.





	flowers bloom until they rot

Dirt trickled between Jarred’s fingers like water. There had been no need for him to scoop that handful of earth before he had left the Shadowlord’s chamber, and yet the urge had compelled him. He had let it fall behind him like a breadcrumb trail. The leftover earth under his fingernails itched, echoed by the itch behind his eyes and beneath his chest. But he forced his heavy, aching feet forward.

_Like Erechtheus, he thought. From the earth I am born. And from the earth I rise._

“What will he want?” he had asked Hermes as he stared at the endless road that stretched before him

“Blood,” Hermes had said simply.

“Mine, my lord?” Jarred had asked.

The god had shaken his head, bemused. “Blood from your soft hands? No, what would the Lord of the Underground do with that?”

“Another’s then?”

“If you want to keep your head.”

So Jarred had shot a deer and slit its throat, letting the blood drain into a hole that Hermes had dug. As the blood seeped into the rich earth a path had cleared revealing a railroad track, as if the mud had been swept away.

His hands were still sticky with the blood of the animal. The knife that had cut the beast’s pulsing throat had sprayed his lips like bitter wine, and he could still taste it. His hands shook from cold and fear. Spring was not far, and yet frost had settled across the ground and each step of his patched boots left behind a terrible crunch, as if he were stepping on broken glass.

His footsteps were ugly and awful, but he could not forget why he took them. His ears strained, hoping to hear something behind him, but if she was behind him, he could not tell.

_Anna._

He remembered her pretty brown eyes, the curls of her hair that fell out of their bindings and rested upon her dark brow. He remembered her tongue, quick and clever. He remembered what she had said the first time he had told her he loved her, in the field of wildflowers that she liked to frequent.

“I don’t know where this road will end,” he hummed, a song he had sung to her countless times before. “But I walk with you into the wind.”

“Those are lovely words, poet,” she had said, tucking a daisy behind his ear. “But words can’t put clothes on my back.”

He had smiled and kissed her until she had forgotten her fears. But fear couldn’t be quenched or cured, and she sighed her anxieties into her ear as he had whispered verse into her ears beneath thin sheets. “I’ll make the world beautiful for you.”

“Those are lovely words, poet,” she had sighed, running her fingertips down his bare thigh. “But they won’t keep my bed warm at night.”

“No,” he agreed, with a smile, “but I will.”

His body had warmed her in the way that words couldn’t, but afterwards her breath was still visible in the frost.

“I’ll make you feel alive, Anna,” Jarred sighed hot in her ear.

“Those are lovely words, poet,” in the high moonlight her skin seemed to stretch tight across her cheekbones, too tight. “But they won’t ease my hunger when there’s no food on my table.”

When Jarred had woken the next morning, her side of the bed was cold. He stumbled out of the bedroom and screamed for Hermes until he tasted blood in the back of his throat.

Hermes had come with a sad story and a map with an endpoint that led to blood and darkness. But Jarred had emerged from those depths, saved solely because of the pretty songs that Anna had for so long denounced as trivial.

_You have a silver tongue and you sing a pretty song _, the voice in the darkness had been faceless, and yet it had struck a chord of terror in Jarred’s heart.__

___I will make you a deal_ , the words had hissed from nowhere as Jarred had carefully shouldered his lyre. _She may return to you. But if you look back to find you before you have returned, she will be mine forever.__ _

__Jarred had consented without a thought. But now his boots felt weighted by the damp earth, as if the grass wrapped around his ankles and wished to pull him under like quicksand, although he knew it was not true. Still, his body was heavy and his legs were weak. He had seen food and drink in Hadestown, but he hadn’t dared touch them._ _

__And now-- was it Anna’s footsteps he heard behind him? Or did those soft sounds belong to the creatures the being in the darkness had sent to follow him when they had made their bargain? Three creatures had followed him, shifting their forms from rats to owls and then to old women in garish clothing. He could hear them whispering behind him, but he did not dare turn._ _

__He heard footsteps behind him, he was sure. He wanted to think that he knew Anna’s footsteps in the same way he had once known her heart, but even that he was not sure he knew any longer. The old women were still singing, softer now, but he could still not tell if his love’s footsteps were among them._ _

__Fear and doubt tugged at Jarred’s heals, and he unstrapped his lyre and strummed a chord, beginning a song he had sung for Anna many times. “Do you let me walk with you?”_ _

__“I do.”_ _

__The soft sound of her voice made his heart pound in his chest. He did not possess the strength to stray from her voice, and even if had he knew she would have overpowered him. The wind seemed to turn his head without permission, and his gaze met hers._ _

__She was beautiful. Her eyes were so bright, brighter still with the tears that filled them._ _

__“Close your eyes, poet,” she whispered._ _

__“No,” he breathed, and reached toward her. She was close enough to touch, but when he tried his hands fell through her arm like water._ _

__“All songs must end,” a deep voice replied. Hermes rose from the shadows behind Anna. When he placed his hand on her shoulder, his hand found purchase in the way that Jarred’s had not._ _

__“No,” Jarred pleaded. “I made a mistake, let me try again.”_ _

__“There are not second chances here,” Hermes guided Anna back towards the darkness._ _

__“Anna, please,” Jarred begged. He fell to his knees in the damp earth. “Wait for me.”_ _

__She turned to him, her face twisted in sorrow. “I can’t, poet.”_ _

__Jarred remained on his knees as tears tracked down his cheeks long after his love-- his life-- disappeared back into the darkness._ _

_Like Erechtheus, he thought. From the earth I am born. And to the earth I fall._


End file.
